Remembering Old Games: Cadillac and Dianosaur (Mustapha)

You might be wondering why I’ve written “Mustapha” in brackets in the title of this post. Cadillac and Dinosaur is one of the most nostalgic games for those who have been enjoying games for a long time. But what does Mostafa has anything to do with this?

Funny thing is, if you grew up in Bangladesh, you know this game by Mustapha, not the actual name, which is “Cadillac and Dinosaur.”

It’s funny, and I never really got to figure out why people used to (and they still do) call this game Mustapha. Yes, there is a hero in this game who goes by the name Mustapha. But he’s not all there is to it. I don’t remember the last time a game was remembered by the name of its character. So, why this?

If memory serves right, I recall calling this name Mustapha because that’s what everybody was calling this. Whether it’s the guy who owned the arcade video game shop or his most regular customers, everyone knew the game by its pet name, Mustapha. It wasn’t until later when I was trying to download an emulator and this game to play on my computer when I realized that a game with the name ‘Mustapha’ didn’t exist.

In one of the gaming groups in Bangladesh, I asked some fellow gamers why they knew it by the name Mustapha and the answers were mostly similar: That’s what everybody called it.

Besides that, ‘Cadillac and Dinosaur’ wasn’t exactly an easy name to say or remember. People loved the character’s name ‘Mustapha,’ and preferred to recognize and refer to the game by that name. More so because there are real people in here with that name so it already sounds familiar.

I can’t call myself a 90s’ gamer as much as I’d love to. I played only a handful of games back in the late 90s and early 2000. But this game was one of the earliest games that I played in my life. It takes me back to the oldest memories that I have of playing video games.

I didn’t play a lot of these arcade video games at gaming shops because I didn’t have a lot of coins back then. My clearest gaming memories from the childhood come from the time when I had a Sega Mega Drive at my home. Follow me on Twitter or Like this blog’s page on Facebook to stay tuned for the upcoming Remembering Old Games post to see if that’s a game you can relate to.

Have you played Cadillac and Dinosaur back in the day? Do you play this game these days? Did you even know that you could play this game on your computer for free? 😀

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Published by A. I. Sajib

I unapologetically enjoy writing about tech and life. I love cars. I'm a Happiness Engineer at Automattic/WordPress.com. The best way to get to know more about me is through my blog at http://ais.blog
View all posts by A. I. Sajib